Boo.com tops 100 e-business list

Boo.com - the fashionably chic failed dotcom that blew a whopping £178 million - has headed a list of the 100 "Dumbest Moments in e-Business History".

Compiled by the new economy-focused magazine ecompany.com, boo.com's top slot epitomises all that is wrong with the dotcom world. It's failure is based on unrivalled extravagance and excess, poor management and a desire to ignore any form of business or common sense.

Indeed, ecompany.com's contempt for boo.com is such that it traces the story back to its very beginning in 1970 when founders Kajsa Leander and Ernst Malmsten were born.

The list includes other gems including, at number 9, how a town in Oregon changed its name to Half.com to "promote the e-tailer of secondhand books, music, and videos."

And this cracker (13) from actress Melanie Griffith, founder of MelanieGriffith.com, who told Paper Magazine: "I don't care if people think I'm a dumb blond or stupid or an overage actress or over the hill. I don't care because I'm gonna have a very successful Internet company, and I'm gonna have $100 million in the bank and I don't really give a shit what anybody thinks!"

At 14, ecompany.com quotes this from the prospectus of Buy.com: "We sell a substantial portion of our products at very low prices. As a result, we have extremely low and sometimes negative gross margins on our product sales."

And at 35, there's the tale of an outfit that paid $7.5 million for the domain name Business.com. The proud new owner told Internet World: "It is going to be the bargain of the century. It is going to look like we bought the island of Manhattan for $7.5 million and some beads."

Flicking through this list is like living the last three years all over again but in just ten minutes. It certainly brings those happy, happy memories flooding back... ®